Please help a technology idiot choose MP3 player and good legal download sites....

[FrenchKissUnderMistletoeGirl]

I want to get dh a cheap MP3 player for Xmas (less than £50 would be great). Are there any good ones around?
Also I have no idea about how to load them and use them (told you I was an idiot), which sites are good, should I avoid any cause they're not legal, etc.......

HELP!!!!!

I've no idea but I was looking at this yesterday is it a bargain?

1GB MP3

mmmm looks good, just the right price too

I still need more help!!

my dd has bought her bf an ipod as his mp3 player was a bit rattly but if you aren't looking to spend as much as that then this might be a compromise, there are a few at 80.0 90.00 isn't an iriver one?

iriver but only 512mb

looks good but how many songs would it hold? can't find the info on there.....

looks good but how many songs would it hold? can't find the info on there.....

now come on you're not all as clueless as me....

Bonjour ma chere, j'ai choisi un iPod super maxi 30Mb £££, alors tous mes conseils sont nuls
Le mien pourrait contenir jusqu'a 7500 chansons, on me dit. Un truc a 512Mb tiendrait vers 150 chansons...
Oh I give up FrenchGirl. Do what I did and panic-buy in John Lewis in your rush-hour. You know you want to really.

arghhhhhh Marina please do not convince me to get an iPod (my secret yearning), I am trying to be sensible!!!!
Ton francais est vraiment super tu sais. Est-ce que tu peux me recommender des sites pour telecharger de la musique?
I would love for dh to get me an MP3 player too, could then download new french stuff, much cheaper than ordering CDs.. Shall I drop heavy hints you think?

iTunes, which you can only access via the installed software with your iPod (cunning sods), and there is a nice one hosted by Oxfam too, with proceeds supporting their work ici
Good stuff also being spoken of the new HMV service par ici
However both sites say that you can't download to iPods from them, which theoretically limits you to just iTunes.
After I spent approximately double what I intended AND finally bought an Apple product for personal use I thought I'd better get myself this really useful little book and in it, there is a way round the no iPods situation which I will explore once I have finished ripping all the CDs I own but have not been able to listen to properly since I had children
hope this helps a little FrenchGirl, et merci pour le compliment.
My iPod was bought with accumulated vouchers and birthday money but dh has been told, to his consternation, to get me a skin for it!

Et en plus c'est beau, mon iPod. Mmmmm, je caresse son petit corps soyeux et si solide... il me chante des chansons d'amour (well, Manhattan Transfer)
En chuchotant: Vas-y FrenchGirl...

You are a pervert!!!!! lol
thanks for all the info, will hit the shops this afternoon and make a fool of myself with superior sounding technocrazed shop assistants (must remember they're only shopboys)
will report back with sensible purchase

Have fun and don't be rushed like I was! The book I really do recommend, it's only small but packed with demystifying tips and jargon.
I swear to God there is something about the iPod's construction though...it really is very tactile and gorgeous

There is a Russian site called AllofMP3.com. It has most UK chart albums, and you can get an entire album for about a dollar and a half (US). Individual songs are anything from about 11 cents. You can pay with your credit card, it is entirely legal and FAR FAR cheaper than MSN music, Itunes, Napster etc

thanks Lakota
just hope it's not a russian mafia thing...

Nope, definitely not related to the mafia as the credit card handler they use is legit. If you Google allofmp3 you'll come accross a few articles discussing the legality etc. but it's been OK'd for the moment. The problem with Napster used to be that people were file-sharing - here you are actually paying for alicence to use the songs, it's just not very much. Use it now before the music industry manages to get it shut down!

I don't work for them, honest.

lol Lakota, I believe you, sounds very good, will have a look!

Weeelll, the "music industry" does also work hard to protect the livelihood of boring old session musicians and technicians as well as overpaid twonks like Robbie and Madge...
I work in music education and I steer well clear of anything other than official download sites because I know very, very few musicians who are millionaires on the backs of a life of freelancing graft...

I used to work for the Performing Rights Society - I wouldn't take anything away from hard working musicians, believe me!

Marina come here!!!
I blame you entirely for this:

I have just gone to John Lewis and blown my budget on the last iPod nano 2Gb they had (it's white, is that too girly?)
It is just so beautiful, it was sitting there amongst the other ugly little MP3 players asking to come home with me...
Now I shall read the blurb and plug it in and put some music and photos on it ready for dh on Xmas morning
Am v v pleased!!!!

you did the right thing. well done

oh thanks!!! It was a good purchase I feel, have you got one too then?

got a 20GB third gen iPod (well it's nominally DW's but as I run the Mac I get to fill it and use it - it's full now with 4700 tracks), but I am hoping DW's taken the hint and there's a black 4GB nano in my stocking...it was a pretty heavy hint - like a piece of paper with iPod nano written on it and the colour and memory size underlined several times

lol

Good luck then....

Chic FrenchGirl (my beautiful slabbo iPod is a 30Mb white one so I don't think there is anything wrong with a white Nano). They really are so lovely aren't they? It was the first time I had seen one close up - people don't tend to flaunt theirs on suburban trains...
Good to know we are all around in good company here what with a ringing endorsement from BITBBH!
Lakota, given your professional background, how do these Russian sites get away with it then? I'd love to know